This is the final installment of a trilogy of “re-imagined” albums that postulates “What if Syd Barrett hadn’t been fired from Pink Floyd?” Themes From An Imaginary Western,
a title derived from an early moniker of the song “Atom Heart Mother”,
is the theoretical album that would have been released in 1970 by a Syd
Barrett-led Pink Floyd, following my other two re-imagined albums,
1969’s Vantage Point and 1968’s The Shape of Questions To Heaven.
The entire album has been crossfaded and edited into two continuous
sides of music with the “Atom Heart Mother” theme bookending the album,
an aesthetic first explored by Pink Floyd at this time and continued for
most of their career; it seemed appropriate for this material.

Themes From An Imaginary Western uses Syd Barrett’s second and final solo album Barrett and Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother
as source material, as both albums were recorded around the same time.
As we’ve already established, a Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd would have
primarily been a singles-oriented band, as opposed to the largely
improvisational, instrumental and experimental quartet Pink Floyd of the
late 60s. This was an easy ethos to mimic on my first two
re-imaginings, but the task is much more difficult here, as Pink Floyd’s
contributions from Atom Heart Mother began to solidify the artistic visions that saw the creation of the classic Pink Floyd albums throughout the decade.

My solution was to design Themes From An Imaginary Western as a collection of the decidedly Pink Floydian Barrett solo tracks, all interconnected with instrumental passages from Atom Heart Mother.
This seemed to be an appropriate choice, as the more low-key, less
schizophrenic and honestly slick early 70s pop-production of many of the
Barrett tracks seemed to pair well with the sound of Atom Heart Mother,
a sound Pink Floyd continued to refine. After much sequencing work was
done, we are left with two sides of music that find this Barrett-led
Floyd attempting a new musical direction, maybe a response to the lack
of obvious hit singles from their last two albums. Themes From An Imaginary Western,
while not immediately abrasive, galactic or even heavy, is at least
cohesive in sound and design and introduces the following album, the
band’s first foray without Syd Barret, Meddle.

Beginning
Side A, the main theme from “Atom Heart Mother” (subtitled “A Father’s
Shout”, and is indicated as such here) was used to introduce the album
and somehow fits perfectly crossfaded into “Baby Lemonade”, which in
turn is hard edited into “Wined and Dined”. An instrumental interlude
in the form of “Rise and Shine” (from “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”)
introduces “Gigolo Aunt”, which is crossfaded into a piece of the
experimental section of “Atom Heart Mother” (subtitled “Mind Your
Throats Please”) and finally into Gimour’s contribution to the album,
the majestic side-closer “Fat Old Sun”. Side B begins with the closest
to a hit single on this album, “Love Song”, followed by the paranoiac
“Wolfpack”. “Dominoes” segues into another instrumental interlude
culled from “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” (subtitled “Sunny Side Up”)
which leads into the epic “Summer ‘68”. Barrett’s last word with Pink
Floyd becomes one of his most noteworthy songs, the child-like
“Effervescing Elephant”, crossfaded into the grand finale of the album,
the closing reprise of the “Atom Heart Mother” theme (subtitled
“Remergence”).

This unfortunately must be the final Syd
Barrett-led Pink Floyd album, as he simply ceased to make music after
this point. What few recordings we have from an attempted third solo
album in 1974 are musically miserable and organizationally scant,
unsuitable for any release, let alone an Album That Never Was. It’s
just as well, as Themes From An Imaginary Western is symbolic of
the end of an era for this proposed Pink Floyd. Listening, we can
clearly hear a Syd Barrett simply running out of steam, the arrangements
relying on typical post-psychedelic pop forays and arbitrary lyrical
subject matter. We can also hear the rest of the band beginning to
surpass their once-leader, ready to tackle broader concepts paired with
refined songwriting. This is the farewell album that, in real life,
Pink Floyd never got to make with Syd. Instead, his ghost haunted Pink
Floyd’s albums for some time. With this trilogy complete, maybe Syd
Barrett’s bones can finally rest.